New York's top terrorism official says there's evidence that members of anarchist groups from outside the city intentionally planned to incite violence at protests calling for justice in the death of George Floyd.

Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said there is a high level of confidence within the NYPD that these unnamed groups had organized scouts, medics, and supply routes of rocks, bottles and accelerants for breakaway groups to commit vandalism and violence. There are strong indicators they planned for violence in advance using at times encrypted communications, he said.

One out of every seven arrests, of 686 so far since May 28, has been people from out of state, according to Miller. He said those arrested came from Massachusettes, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Iowa, Nevada, Virginia, Maryland, Texas and St. Paul, Minnesota.

The head of police in Richmond, Virginia choked up describing how rioters set a building on fire and wouldn't let a fire truck get to the scene, requiring officers to forcefully intervene to save a child trapped inside.

Peaceful protests in Richmond escalated into violence on Saturday, with a radical mob setting ablaze a police cruiser, a bus and several buildings, including the United Daughters of the Confederacy headquarters. One of their targets was a building in Broad Street, in which there was a child, Richmond Police Chief Will Smith told journalists on Sunday.

In the United States, riots that began due to the death of African American George Floyd are gaining strength.

On May 25, an African American, George Floyd, was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. The white policeman Derek Chauvin pressed his neck with his knee and held it like this for more than 7 minutes while George was lying face down on the road.

Suspected of paying for a pack of cigarettes purchased in a store, with fake notes, Floyd repeatedly said: "I can't breathe", but the policeman did not stop pressing his neck. Officer Chauvin has repeatedly committed unjustified detention violence.

Well, it looks like the Resistance's long-anticipated "Second Civil War" has finally begun ... more or less exactly on cue. Rioting has broken out across the nation. People are looting and burning stores and attacking each other in the streets. Robocops are beating, tear-gassing, and shooting people with non-lethal projectiles.

State National Guards have been deployed, curfews imposed, "emergencies" declared. Secret Servicemen are fighting back angry hordes attempting to storm the White House. Trump is tweeting from an "underground bunker."

Opportunist social media pundits on both sides of the political spectrum are whipping people up into white-eyed frenzies. Americans are at each other's throats, divided by identity politics, consumed by rage, hatred, and fear.

Things couldn't be going better for the Resistance if they had scripted it themselves.

Actually, they did kind of script it themselves. Not the murder of poor George Floyd, of course. Racist police have been murdering Black people for as long as there have been racist police. No, the Resistance didn't manufacture racism.

For months the global health pandemic known as the coronavirus or COVID-19 has been dominating the headlines while drastically changing the lives of billions of people around the world. With unprecedented restrictions of people's fundamental human rights, while simultaneously destroying the global economy, what is really going on?

Many have questioned the response from governments and global institutions such as the World Health Organization from the very beginning. Now, the CDC admits the mortality rate of the virus is much lower than previously projected, but the question remains why are we all still on lockdown?

Although the question for the need of continued lockdowns is now more important than ever, it seems to be lost as we are witnessing massive civil unrest spread across the US just as quickly as we were told the virus was spreading.

The volunteers appeared to be from all demographics, with Black, brown, white and Muslim residents all seen participating in the collective clean up effort.

Volunteers have flocked to the streets of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area to help clean up the shattered glass, graffiti, and other debris left behind in the aftermath of huge protests and widespread unrest resulting from the brutal killing of George Floyd.

Residents from across Minnesota and neighboring states flooded into neighborhoods in the Twin Cities that saw some of the most massive protests and skirmishes with police to help mop and sweep affected areas, MPR News reports.

The volunteers appeared to be drawn from the same diverse demographic groups as those who took the streets throughout the week, with Black, brown, white and Muslim residents all seen participating in the collective clean up effort.

Comment: Perhaps a good reminder that - in the midst of all the chaos - exist a number of people of good will out there who are seeking to be constructive and finding solutions - instead of exacerbating the problems.

The federal government has opened the door to providing cash grants for home renovations as part of a new round of economic stimulus aimed at propping up Australia's construction sector.

The government has also hinted it is looking at helping the struggling arts and entertainment sector, which has been pleading for assistance for months because many workers have missed out on the $1,500 fortnightly jobkeeper wage subsidy.

It is understood the support for home renovations is on the table - but the bigger focus of the forthcoming package is likely to be new construction and larger-scale work.

14 per cent of Small and Medium-Sized businesses won't have enough cash 'to last four weeks of lockdown', according to the latest business survey conducted by two country-wide accountancy networks with tens of thousands of members.

99 per cent of all UK employment is within Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), businesses employing 250 people or less.

The Association of Certified Charters Accountants (ACCA) UK and the Corporate Finance Network (CFN) produce weekly reports tracking the financial health of SMEs in the UK amid the COVID-19 lockdown. ACCA UK explains to Sputnik that while there has been much effort from the government to assist small businesses, many remain unable to receive the financial support that they require, with the number of SMEs planning to liquidate now reaching 5 percent.

Sputnik: The latest joint ACCA and Corporate Finance Network report says that cashflow is a key concern for SMEs across the UK.

Comment: We've barely begun to see the damage wrought by the unjustified lockdown: